Posted on 02/19/2015 11:21:25 AM PST by lee martell
One of my greatest online pastimes, other than viewing Free Republic, had been to read the comments left after an unusual or intriguing news event. I've noticed that within the last year, more and more news sites will either not allow for any comments to be posted, or will say leaving comments is contingent on first joining Facebook. I have no intention of getting on Facebook at this time, because I've heard the CEO laugh off any concerns of privacy as an antiquated , even suspicious mindset. I feel the same about twitter too. I've heard of the many instances of folks swarming and attacking anyone who writes something that challenges popular opinion. I've heard of people who delight in ruining one's reputation in their working life, to the point where that person loses their jobs. However, I'm sort of missing the free flow of comments from the average person. Most commenting sites no longer allow you to Vote Down an unpopular idea or statement. I really do miss being able to use my Down Vote every once in a while.
Yep, note that anything controversial is always “comments closed at this time” on FOX News.
Storage costs money.................
It’s 2015 America. There are no losers. Everyone gets a trophy. No one is allowed to be offended. Move along.
Too much common sense was spreading. Can’t have that.
Congratulations, you just fulfilled your tagline.
One of the little pleasures was reading the comments on the Boston Herald. They have removed them and you have to go to their facebook site to see comments. Perhaps if traffic slows enough they’ll restore them to their proper place.
Lots of “news” sites are shutting down comments because the comment sections fill in all of those oh-so-un-P.C. details they work so hard to excise from their stories. They hate that.
Most article comment threads fast devolve into shouting matches. Comes a point that the site hosts get tired of providing a forum for relentless vitriol & stupidity. There are plenty of raging idiots on both sides.
Yep!
Bump to ya Lee.
I’ve read too many horror stories about Facebook, Twitter, etc. to get involved at all with “social networking.”
The naivete of some folks is just breathtaking, especially when it comes to their kids.
Moderating comments requires the hiring of paid staff. My guess is that they’re testing the waters to see if having comments enabled pays for itself. If traffic drops off significantly, they will probably re-enable them. Bloomberg has disabled comments, presumably for the same reason.
People who get involved in these things as anything other than anonymous contributors need to understand that if they say anything controversial, it will be recorded for posterity in Google's cache.
Go back and read the treads from 911 here
Closing comments encourages sharing of articles through social media (Google+, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Social media coverage in turn affects the rankings assigned by the search engines (Google, Bing, etc.).
Repost that article here at FR. Comment as many times as you like. Review other FR comments and voila you have reasoned and valuable input
I too have considered that possibility, that acquiring more gigabytes and having to manage ever increasing amounts becomes too expensive. I have no concept as to what those costs are. I recall newspapers and agate spaces per column inch, but I cannot yet quantify online data. No doubt there is a simple formula or algorithm projection to go by,
Star and Tribune site in Minneapolis, MN does this. They filter comments and for subjects they know will have many negative comments they disable all commenting usually due to a democrat scandal or stupid policy.
I too will not join Facebook. The ceo helped support obama and the muslim brotherhood terrorists in Egypt.
There are Yahoo commenters who will vote down just because.
Aha! The Diversion of the Water Flow Theory. It makes sense if one presumes the media are working together in such a coordinated way. The flow of comments has got to be going somewhere.
I think it has more to do with the comments being overwhelmingly conservative, thus, showing the country isn’t moderate or leftist.
Storage isn’t the issue. Most sites are run through 3rd parties. Those sites might charge per volume.
Moderating often isn’t a problem either, because you can turn that over to trusted news junkie volunteers.
It’s not hard to set up a fake g-mail or yahoo e-mail account, thus allowing you to set up a fake facebook page. They don’t force you to use your real name.
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